Francis Galton

Francis Galton was an English polymath, born in Birmingham in 1822 and died in 1911, who worked as a statistician, anthropologist, psychologist, meteorologist and explorer. In psychology he is credited with founding psychometrics and differential psychology, the study of how people differ in ability. He applied statistical methods to human differences and the inheritance of intelligence, developed the concept of correlation, introduced questionnaires and surveys for gathering data, and popularised the phrase nature versus nurture. His book Hereditary Genius appeared in 1869. He was Charles Darwin's half-cousin and was knighted in 1909. He coined the term eugenics in 1883, and he is criticised today for his advocacy of eugenics and biological racism.